30 people losing jobs at former GNP corporate headquarters in St. Cloud

Colorado-based Pilgrim's Pride Corp. will close the former GNP corporate headquarters in St. Cloud, a little more than a year after acquiring the maker of Gold'n Plump and Just Bare chicken products.

About 30 people are affected by the decision, according to an e-mailed statement from Pilgrim's Pride spokesman Cameron Bruett.

The Greeley, Colo.-based company purchased GNP, the largest chicken producer in the Midwest, in a $350 million cash deal that closed in January 2017.

Another 30 positions in St. Cloud were eliminated at the time of the sale. Pilgrim's Pride CEO Bill Lovette said then that the company does not "anticipate significant workforce changes going forward" and that the St. Cloud jobs were redundant.

However, Pilgrim's shuttered a poultry processing plant in Luverne, Minn., late last year, which put about 200 people in the southwestern Minnesota community out of work.

Pilgrim's Pride is the second largest chicken producer in the United States after Tyson Foods Inc. The company's majority owner is Brazil-based JBS S.A., the world's largest meat processor by sales.

The move to eliminate the remaining administrative staff in St. Cloud came as part of broader restructuring efforts, according to a Feb. 8 letter to employees obtained by the Star Tribune.

The decision does not affect any former GNP production facilities, hatcheries or feed mills, nor are any growers involved.

According to the memo, former GNP plants in Cold Spring, Minn., will become part of Pilgrim's "case ready" business unit, one of the company's largest. The Acadia, Wis., plant will align with the "fresh food service" unit.

Bruett said Pilgrim's offered jobs "for many of the St. Cloud team in Greeley and at other Pilgrim's locations."